Promoting education among tribals
Providing education to the downtrodden and the ignored sections of the society is one of the key tasks of the governments today. Since many areas across the country fall in various backward zones and regions the locals who reside there have been on the receiving end as far as education of their children is concerned. Apart from the education the overall development of these communities also got stuck at various levels as well.
In Jammu and Kashmir one such section that had not been able to reap the dividends of development is the tribal population. The section of the population has been left wanting on education and development front. The interests of tribal people, including their land, education and upliftment of their socio-economic status have were left in doldrums as the past regimes did not do enough to get them into the mainstream and provide equal opportunities to them.
Though various initiatives were announced from time to time but all these initiatives ended up in the files of various offices as the situation did not change at the ground level. Though all these initiatives had the potential to transform the lives of members of tribal communities across Jammu and Kashmir, but the question remains as the implementation of these schemes had not been worked out using proper planning and execution.
Now that things have started to move in the right direction for the entire tribal community as the present government has set out for the historic beginning of the new era of educational empowerment of Tribals in Jammu and Kashmir.
For ensuring this it has been worked out to provide education on modern lines to Tribal children as the government has started an ambitious project of transforming 200 Schools into Smart Schools in Tribal areas at a cost of Rs 40 crores. The modernization of Smart Schools initiative would be completed by March 2022.
This initiative has come at a time when the tribal population had reached a point where they felt completely isolated as the problems they faced were immense and a fresh beginning had become imperative.
The initiative of creating smart schools that too in a fixed time frame will open new vistas for the children in tribal community and a new beginning can be carved out for them as they will get to know the real power and charisma modern education offers for the overall development of the young adults.
Promoting education among the tribals should remain a focus so that the lack of development they had suffered over the years can be covered up in a minimal time frame.
Since this seems a good beginning for the community, the leaders and influencers among the community too need to rise up to the occasion and imbibe a sense of involvement among its people. Besides they should also focus on making their community members as development oriented so that such initiatives achieve the objective that they have been devised for.
The tribal community has already got the momentum they need to touch the skies as various rights were conferred upon the community through implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
These rights will ensure their socio-economic development which had otherwise escaped them over the years. The tribal communities were not only provided rights on forest land, but they also got rights over minor forest produce.
This move will end up creating a coordinated effort with the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited, which will in return establish infrastructure for collection, value addition, packaging, and distribution of this forest produce.
Besides, the Tribal Affairs Department has rolled out a plan for the establishment of Milk Villages, Milk Chilling plants(MCP), Milk Product Processing and other facilities in tribal villages aimed to support milk production and supply chain in these areas.
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